


The Tailor

by KaylaToriWolf



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Actually kind of proud of this, I got bored and wanted to distract myself from hurricane Irma, M/M, Slight klangst I guess???, Tooth rotting fluff at the end though dw, completely unoriginal plot but oh well, dumb jokes, slight blood mentions
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-10
Updated: 2017-09-10
Packaged: 2018-12-26 07:10:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,049
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12053916
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KaylaToriWolf/pseuds/KaylaToriWolf
Summary: When Keith and Lance go on a mission to an ellegedly abandoned Galra base, things don't exactly go to plan and Lance has to give an all new meaning to the nickname 'the tailor'.





	The Tailor

**Author's Note:**

> Please excuse the disgustingly unoriginal plot, I wrote this as a distraction from the stress of hurricane Irma so it's kind of rough. But oh well, it helped me feel better so that's what matters I guess.

The mission had started out well enough. Lance and Keith had been sent down for a simple enough mission. Get in, get any information they can from the abandoned galra base, get out. And they had made it to the second step without a hitch. Or too much of one at least. 

And of course it had been a trap. Because the universe couldn't work in their favor for just one day now could it? You'd think being the Defenders of the Universe would put them on it's good side but apparently not. However, they had been prepared for that to happen, staying on high alert and fighting off any galra sentries stationed there until their scanners said there was nobody else there but them. 

It was only when they made the mistake of thinking they could let their guards down that it went horribly wrong. 

Lance had been poking around at a strange device that seemed to be emitting some kind of strange aura while he waited for the information to transfer to Pidge. It was then that he heard what sounded like a door bang open followed by a startled yell. His body had immediately sprung into action, summoning his bayard and propelling him towards the noise he knew had come from Keith. 

And usually he wouldn't be so worried, Keith could easily hold his own against a sentry or two or five. He had proved that not ten minutes ago. But he had been moving rather sluggishly after a particularly painful twisting of his ankle during one of their fights against the leftover sentries. The stubborn bastard had refused to rest, saying he'd be fine and that he could look at it when they got back to the castle. They had argued for a solid three minutes until Lance finally gave up, saying if it got worse it wasn't his fault to which Keith had only grunted and that had been that. But now Lance was worried that his reactions would be slower and so he ran in his direction, rifle at the ready and stomach tied in knots. 

Bursting into the room the first thing he noticed was Keith fighting with a sentry. He seemed to be doing fine but Lance could tell he was favoring his left foot heavily, each swing of his sword beginning to wear him out. Acting on pure instinct and muscle memory alone, he had aimed at and shot it down before you could say Quiznack. 

Keith sagged visibly in relief shooting a quick thankful smile towards him before his eyes widened and he yelled a panicked "Lance, to your right!" 

Lance had turned around just in time to see another sentry advancing on him, though not quick enough to stop it from ramming straight into him, causing him to fall to the ground with a hiss of pain, wind momentarily knocked out of him. He looked up just in time to see Keith's bayard impale itself into the chest of the sentry, having been thrown with such precision and ferocity it was almost frightening. 

Keith had immediately run over asking if he was okay with such open concern it made Lance's chest ache. Once he regained his breath he pulled himself up using Keith's offered hand, letting a cocky smirk slip onto his face as he assured him the other guy looks much worse. This caused Keith to roll his eyes with a snort.

What both paladins had failed to notice was that there was a third sentry that had snuck up behind them while they were momentarily distracted. 

And before Lance knew what was happening, Keith's snort turned into a cough as his eyes widened in horror. The sentry had reached around and driven its blade into Keith's stomach, piercing through the paladin armor and into his flesh. Keith stumbled forward, grasping onto Lance desperately as Lance, fueled by panic and rage, hastily shot straight through the sentry's head. 

Which brings us to the present. 

For a moment Lance just stands there, frozen by fear until the sound of the shot sentry crashing to the floor breaks him out of his stupor. 

"Keith?" Comes Lance's strangled voice, nearly losing his balance as Keith sags onto him with a pained groan. "No no no no no no no...quiznack!" It's only then that he notices the panicked voices of his friends coming through his helmet trying to figure out what is happening. 

"LANCE? What is going on down there! Are you two alright?" Comes Allura's worried voice. 

"I'm fine, i-it's Keith he- there were three more sentries that didn't show up on our scanners and they- one of them snuck up on us and st-stabbed Keith and-" Lance's throat closes up at that point and he instead focuses on getting the boy somewhere safe. After checking to make sure there are no more sentries nearby he slowly lowers Keith onto the ground. Lance takes off Keith's helmet and slowly lifts off the top of his paladin armor swearing when he sees the deep wound from the knife. 

There's blood. 

Too much blood.

Keith has a short coughing fit that has Lance cringing, he can only imagine how much that has to add to the pain. He is relieved however to see his eyes are still open though starting to lose focus. 

Hastily taking off his own armor he takes off his over shirt, pressing it against the wound earning him a pained hiss from Keith. "H-hey Keith? Buddy? I know this hurts, like really bad, but I need you to do something for me okay? Just hold this a-as tight as you can against the wound okay? Can you do that for me?"

Keith groans but nods, bringing a hand up to take the place of Lance's shaking hand. 

"Now, this is really going to hurt but I'm going to pick you up okay? You can get mad all you want but you'll thank me later when you're alive and not bleeding out. So. On three. One. Two. Three." And with a grunt from both parties, Lance lifts Keith up into his arms bridal style. Lance starts walking which causes Keith to let out a whimper, clutching the shirt harder and curling in towards Lance's chest. 

"I know, I know, you're doing great Keith, you just need to stay awake so Red doesn't kill me okay?" Lance says with an anxious laugh. The answering coughing fit causes panic to spike through his body, quickening his pace.

After what feels like hours they safely make it back to their lions with little incident. He can tell that Keith is struggling to stay awake however, despite his desperate attempts to keep him awake. As expected, Red nearly runs straight into him in her panic to get to Keith, Blue not far behind. He doesn't have to be her paladin to feel how scared she is for Keith despite Blue's efforts to calm her down. 

"I know, Red, but I really need to take him onto Blue so I can try and treat him okay? He's going to be fine I just gotta- we're so far from the castle and-" Lance cuts himself off with a shake of the head. Blue seems to understand his urgency though and rushes to open up and let them come aboard.

Before she closes though he swears he feels Red say a gentle "Take care of him, please." He turns around and gives the huge lion his most reassuring smile. "Don't worry, I will."

He carries Keith into the cockpit, leaning the main chair back as a makeshift table and placing him on top as gently as he can. He rushes to find his first aid kit which he's never been so relieved he had put in there however many months ago. He finally finds it only to hear another string of coughs from Keith followed by a hoarse but panicked "Lance?"

Lance's stomach twists and he rushes back to his side. "I'm here Keith, I'm here," He says softly, absently brushing some of the hair out of Keith's eyes. "I'm gonna clean the wound okay?" He says, digging through the kit to find whatever he can. Keith simply nods, hand letting go of the blood soaked shirt so that Lance can move it aside.

Lance can't help but wince at the sight of it, relieved to see that the bleeding has mostly stopped. After putting on some gloves, he pours some kind of rubbing alcohol equivalent onto a cloth and starts to clean the blood from around the wound, switching to water when he gets to the actual cut. Keith makes a distressed noise and Lance is immediately trying to soothe him with gentle words and a hand stroking through his hair. "I know, I know, I'm so sorry."

Once he figures it's as clean as he can get it he moves on to working out what to do next. After some deliberation and rummaging through the mostly foreign contents of the medical kit, he decides that stitches is probably his best option. He doesn't want to risk the wound getting any bigger and doesn't have any kind of tape. 

"Hey Keith? I'm-I'm gonna need to give you some stitches okay? It's really not good and we're still pretty far from the castle and—" Lance cuts himself off when Keith nods his head very slightly. Lance takes a couple deep breaths then sets about working on the stitches. "Okay." 

After a short silence Lance can't stand it so he starts talking again. Though whether it's to distract himself or to keep Keith awake, he has no idea. "You know what they used to call me at school?"

"Lance...McLame?" Keith croaks out with a weak smirk. Lance nearly jumps in surprise, not expecting an answer. 

"No, asshole, they called me The Tailor because of how I thread the needle. Although I guess this time I'm threading an actual needle," Lance says, threading said needle with surprisingly steady hands. Keith seems to go to say something before he has another coughing fit that has some blood flowing again. More determined then ever, Lance quickly cleans the wound and sets about stitching it up as quickly and painlessly as possible. 

And soon enough it's over. 

It might not be his best job but it will have to work until he can get him to a healing pod in the castle. He tries not to think about the amount of blood on his hands as he slides the gloves off, disposing of them in a nearby trash can. He manages to find a clean shirt which he replaces the one covered in blood with, then goes back to Keith's side, wishing for Blue to go faster.

Lance assumes he blanks out for a moment because the next thing he knows Blue is landing inside the castle, Red not far behind, and his friends are all rushing towards them. Lance hurries over to Keith, picking him up as carefully as he can as he talks gently to him. "C'mon mullet, almost there."

A barrage of noise assaults his ears as soon as he steps out of Blue. 

Questions...

Too many questions...

He looks straight at Allura with desperate, pleading eyes simply saying "Healing pod. Now." She nods, leading him to the pod already set up and helping to put Keith inside of it. With the adrenaline previously pumping through his body finally running out, he practically collapses onto the ground in relief. 

We made it. 

He'll be okay. 

He'll live. 

"Lance, what happened out there?" Lance immediately recognizes the voice as Shiro's and his stomach drops with guilt. 

"I–I don't know it all happened so suddenly I–" Lance takes a shuddering breath, hands coming up to grasp at his hair. "I don't know."

"Shiro, please, leave it until tomorrow," Comes Allura's calm but commanding voice. "He's been through a lot I'm sure." Shiro heaves a heavy sigh but seems to listen, backing off and seemingly leaving the room. "Call us if you need anything?" She asks, turning back to Lance. 

"Sure thing Princess," Lance says with a slight smile before resting his head back on his knees. With a sad smile she turns to leave as well, wanting to give him some time alone. 

He feels a warm presence settle beside him and instantly melts into a bone crushing hug, letting tears flow he hadn't realized he'd been holding back until now. 

"He'll be fine Lance, you know he will," Hunk murmurs, holding him closer. 

"Of course he will be, he'd pull through on sheer stubbornness and willpower alone," Lance says with a watery laugh. 

"Aww, look, Lance really does care about Keith, how sickening," Pidge says with a snicker from his other side, nudging him with her elbow. 

"Of course I care! I'd have to answer to Red if he died!" Lance says glaring at Pidge. "Not even Blue could protect me from her wrath," He adds with a shudder. "Don't tell Blue I said that."

"Sure Lance," she says with an eye roll. "You really shouldn't worry though. You did what you could for him so just let the castle do the rest," She says, patting his shoulder and standing to leave. 

"Pidge is right. If it weren't for you he might not have even made it back so give yourself some credit," Hunk says with a smile. 

"If I hadn't let my guard drop he wouldn't have gotten hurt in the first place," Lance mumbles miserably. "I should've seen it coming and shot it before it even–" Lance starts but is cut of by Hunk who grabs his shoulders. 

"You can't do that to yourself Lance. You can't blame yourself for something like this! You're not being fair on yourself and you know it," Hunk says, the hardness of his voice catching Lance completely off guard. 

"Sorry," Lance mumbles, curling further in on himself. "You're right."

"The most important thing is that you both made it back alive, right?" Hunk says, pulling him back in for a hug. 

"Yeah," Lance says with a sigh, wiping the tears from his eyes. "Thanks, Hunk."

"Anytime buddy," Hunk says with a slight squeeze. "Now I'm going to go to bed and I suggest you do the same. He'll still be here in the morning y'know?" He adds, standing to leave. 

"I think I'm just going to stay here a bit longer," Lance says quietly. 

"Just, promise me you'll get some sleep okay?" Hunk says with a sad smile. 

"Promise," Lance says, raising his pinkie finger up for effect. 

And soon Lance finds himself alone, the silence almost suffocating. He's never been able to stand complete silence and something about the now eerie silence of the castle grates on his nerves. Staring up at Keith in the healing pod immediately brings all of his guilt back. 

I could've stopped it. 

I should've seen the sentry. 

It's my fault. 

It's all my fault. 

It's my fault he got hurt. 

If only I wasn't such a failure. 

If only...

If only...

If only...

Lance spends the rest of the night curled up like that, with his head on his knees just staring at the pod as if willing Keith to wake up. And that's how Allura finds him the next morning, fast asleep. She knows he's been there all night, simply leaving some breakfast by him and a blanket around him. She knows no one will be able to drag him away from that spot until Keith wakes up. 

No one questions where he is at breakfast that morning, already knowing exactly where he is. Hunk makes sure to check on him every couple of hours but otherwise they mostly leave him alone. 

He barely talks, barely eats, can't even get himself to move somewhere more comfortable. He knows Keith wouldn't want him to sit there beating himself up about it, but he can't help it. Can't bring himself to do anything else but sit and sulk; memories playing over and over in his head until he's not sure they're even real anymore. 

He feels guilty not only for what happened to Keith but also for worrying his friends so much. He doesn't have to be around them to know that they're worried about him. Hunk tries to hide it, but he can see the pitying looks he sends him when he thinks he isn't looking. The knowing smiles he tries to cover up when he catches Lance just staring up at Keith. 

And Lance hates it. Hates that he has to be such a burden. Hates that he can be read so easily. 

If this has given him anything, it's given him way too much time to think. And during this time he's thought a lot about his feelings towards Keith and where they stand. He eventually realizes that his over protectiveness likely isn't just coming from a place of friendship, but that it could be he cares about him as more than just a friend. 

And sure, that realization terrifies him at first, because who falls for their rival? But the more he considers it, the more things actually make sense, until he's feeling like an idiot for not realizing it sooner. 

The next time Hunk comes to check on him he can't stop himself before the words "I think I'm in love with him." Come tumbling out of his mouth. And while he expected to feel scared or anxious after admitting it out loud, he only feels a sense of relief and clarity. 

Hunk simply pulls him into a hug, laughing about how it took him long enough and that he didn't hide it well. He assures him that he still loves him no matter what and that the rest of the team feels the same. And suddenly Lance feels lighter than air, not realizing just how much he needed his best friends' reassurance and approval until now. 

"And I get the feeling it might not be as one sided as you may think," Hunk says with a nudge and a smirk, standing to leave. 

"Wait- wha- Huuuunk what does that mean?!" Lance whines, staring at his friend incredulously. 

"Let's just say, you're not the only one who stares when you think the other isn't looking," Hunk teases. 

"Huuuunk! Wait! I don't stare at him! Do I?" Lance asks with a pout, his only answer being a full bellied laugh. 

"You two are hopeless, honestly," Hunk says, shaking his head. "I'm making some cookies, this is a cause for celebration!"

Lance simply falls backwards with a groan, grumbling incoherently as his face heats up from embarrassment. The next hour, Hunk keeps his promise and comes back with food that slightly resembles cookies. Lance practically moans when he bites into one as it surprisingly tastes like a cookie too. It's the most he's eaten all day and he is now very aware of the grumbling in his stomach. 

With his mood significantly improved after the delicious food and company of his best friend, he decides he should probably follow after Hunk and go apologize to everyone for worrying them. But just as he stands to leave, the healing pod chimes and prepares to open up. 

Lance's heart leaps up to his throat and his stomach lurches. "Keith!" He immediately rushes over, ready to help him out of the pod, not noticing that Hunk has slipped out of the room to give them some privacy. Relief floods through him as the pod opens, Keith stumbling out on unsteady legs. Lance gets there just in time to catch him before he falls to the ground. 

Still looking a little dazed Keith finally seems to register his surroundings and takes in Lance's appearance. Judging by the bags under his eyes he knows he hasn't slept and likely hasn't eaten much either. It breaks his heart seeing him in such an unkempt state. 

"You know, for a tailor you're pretty shit at sewing," Keith says, voice scratchy but teasing none the less. And Lance is so relieved to hear his voice again he can't help but launch himself towards him, crushing him in a hug. And so what if he sheds a few tears of joy, he'd never admit it to anyone. 

"Shut up, mullet," Lance says with a laugh that turns into a choked sob, burying his face into said hair. 

"Aww, did you miss me?" Keith says, amusement coloring his voice as he hugs him back. 

And before he can process what he's doing, Lance finds himself running a hand through Keith's bangs pushing them back and out of his face; looking into Keith's startlingly violet eyes. "Yeah, I really did." 

Keith's eyes widen ever so slightly as Lance's hand moves down to cup the back of his neck and before he knows it he's closing the distance between them.

The kiss happens so quickly Keith wonders if it even happened at all or if he just imagined it until Lance seems to realize what he just did, face coloring and eyes widening almost comically. 

Keith simply stares up at him, mind reeling and having turned to mush, an unexpected warmth spreading through his body and to his face. Lance seems to panic slightly, starting to step back and stuttering out excuses about just being really happy to see him and beginning to apologize when Keith snaps out of his initial surprise and tightens his arms around him. 

"If I had known all it took to get you to kiss me was to almost die I would've done it ages ago," Keith says with a light laugh before pulling him back in for another kiss. 

And this kiss is completely different. 

It's not perfect, it's not the best kiss he's ever had, but he wouldn't want it any other way. 

He's never felt so warm and content, mouths moving together as if they were made for each other. 

Lance can't help the gasp that escapes his lips as Keith threads a hand through his hair and tentatively licks along his lower lip, only serving to open his mouth and giving his probing tongue total access. Lance's brain short circuits as Keith's tongue starts to explore his mouth, still tentative but slowly gaining more confidence as Lance begins to reciprocate. 

Lance slowly pushes him backwards until his back meets the now closed healing pod door, using his height to his advantage and effectively pinning him against it while pressing their bodies together. They continue exploring each other with curious tongues; wayward hands running through hair and ghosting along abdomens. 

Eventually they are forced to separate due to their unfortunate need for oxygen. For a moment they both just stand there, arms wrapped around each other and foreheads resting on foreheads. And Lance thinks his heart might burst at the sight of the brilliant smile that lights up Keith's face like the sun itself, his mouth forming a grin of its own. 

"I guess it was my turn to cradle you in my arms, huh?" Lance says with a smirk once he catches his breath. 

"So you do remember!" Keith says, punching him in the arm. "Asshole."

And Lance can't help but burst out laughing at the look of utter disbelief and betrayal on his face. Still laughing he quickly leans down to kiss his frown away. "Sorry?"

"Apology not accepted," Keith grumbles, but he can't help the reluctant smile that fights it's way onto his face anyways, pulling him down for another kiss. Lance hums happily, hand teasing under Keith's shirt ever so slightly. They were so caught up in each other they didn't even notice the rest of the paladins who had all rushed in only to be shoved back out by a sheepish Hunk as soon as he realized what was happening. Though not quickly enough to stop a cackling Pidge from taking a picture or two for blackmail purposes. 

And sure, maybe it wasn't the best of circumstances that finally brought them together, but they'd be lying if they said they wish it hadn't happened. 

Because despite the guilt, and despite the pain, they now have each other. And that, in Keith's humble opinion, was worth almost dying for.

**Author's Note:**

> Literally the only reason I wrote this was so that I could have Lance make a joke about being a Tailor while needing to give Keith stitches. Like no joke that was my inspiration.


End file.
